BodyBreak pair to talk about health pitfalls
“The key is to ask the question, what seems to be the problem?” said Johnson in a phone inteerview with the Citizen. “People know what they can eat, they know that ordering deep fried fish and chips is not the healthiest thing. It’s the things that they don’t know that can really be the issue. There’s a lot of hidden things out there.”
Advertising can be misleading, Johnson said, and parents want to give the kids what the pros drink during and after their sports like hockey and soccer.
“That means you think you should give them a Gatorade after the game, but kids don’t need sugar, they need protein when they are finished with their sporting activity to repair and recover,” said Johnson, who will clear up the misconceptions and offer advice on the subject during the Expo.
Johnson and McLeod recently enjoyed an added jolt to their celebrity as Team BodyBreak during the first season of Amazing Race Canada.
“We’re going to talk about the Amazing Race and how we were able to work together as a team because people are fascinated about the race,” said Johnson.
The wave of attention continued as they appeared on the premiere of This Hour Has 22 Minutes last week, which Johnson said was a lot of fun and even he was impressed that they were invited on the show. They were also the grand marshals of the Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest parade.
“It’s funny, this whole last year has been fantastic, giving us these opportunities, going places that we wouldn’t have ordinarily gone to and we’re excited to come to Prince George,” said Johnson, who has shared the BodyBreak experience with McLeod for the last quarter century.
Best known for the short television vignettes for BodyBreak, Johnson and McLeod also had 30-minute TV shows, videos and offer tips on all things fitness on their website, as well. Johnson and McLeod were partners but people were never sure if they were a couple in real life. Suspicions were confirmed when they married years after being together and now have a teenage daughter together.
Johnson said people get confused and associate the BodyBreak team with Participaction, even though they were only funded by the company for two years. BodyBreak is not affiliated with Participaction and has been outspoken about some of the brand’s sponsor choices.
With 25 years of television experience, Johnson said they appealed to a large segment of the Amazing Race audience.
“We brought an audience that grew up with us and that was the target group – someone who was 30 to 35, plus we also drew in the older audience,” he said. “Everyone 40 and older said they were rooting for us. They told us we were the team they wanted to win. It’s a game, a contest, and we were surprised and the producers were also surprised that we garnered so much attention. We were like, wow, I guess people still like us.”
Johnson and McLeod approached the Amazing Race as they do a golf game.
“When you play golf, you play against the golf course and you try your best and whatever challenges or roadblocks you face on the golf course, you face them on your own and you focus on your game and not somebody else’s. In life you have to focus in on your prize, what you want to get out of life. When you’re trying to sabotage other people, it really takes you away from your own goals and your own focus and feeds the drama and politics of the game – that’s not the part of the game we wanted to play.”
Healthier You Expo, Healthy at Home, Healthy at Work, is presented free of charge by the Honourable Shirley Bond, the Immigrant & Multicultural Services Society and the Prince George Citizen.
Johnson and McLeod will present their talk at 1:30 during the Expo at the Civic Centre on Sunday.
Source: The Prince George Citizen
